Helena Cobban

Charlottesville, VA

Helena is the owner of Just World Books, a small book-publishing company headquartered in Charlottesville.  Previously, she was a writer, researcher and program organizer on global affairs.  She had a long relationship with The Christian Science Monitor.  She worked as a Beirut-based regional correspondent for the paper during 1976-81, and contributed a regular column on Middle Eastern and other global issues to it during 1990-2007.  She has written for many other outlets, including the Sunday Times (London), The Nation (New York), Foreign Policy.com, the BBC, and Boston Review, where she is a Contributing Editor.  Four of the seven books she has published since 1984 have been on different aspects of the Arab-Israeli issue, and one has been on retributive versus restorative justice.  Since 2003, she has published the well-regarded blog on international affairs, “Just World News.”  She was a co-director of Search for Common Ground’s Middle East Initiative, 1991-92.  Ms. Cobban is a member of Charlottesville Friends Meeting.  She speaks French and Arabic.  She is married to UVA professor William B. Quandt and has three adult children.